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Evidence for Wa'aché Waledat
1 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.1444
Type Ethnography
Game Wa'aché Waledat
Location 15°36'28.30"N, 39°27'19.36"E
Date 1971-01-01 - 1971-12-31
Rules 2x6 board. Three counters per hole. Sowing occurs in an anti-clockwise direction when starting from the right three holes of a player's row, or in a clockwise direction when starting from the player's left three holes. When the final counter falls into an occupied hole, these are picked up and sowing continues, except when this hole is made to contain four counters, in which case these counters are captured and the player takes another turn. These captures may not be made on the first turn. When the final counter lands in an empty hole, the turn ends. When a player sows from one of their end holes containing a single counter into an empty hole in the opponent's row, the opponent cannot sow it back in the following move. Play continues until one player is without counters in their row. The opponent then captures the remaining counters in their row, and the player that has captured the most counters wins.
Content "Mazageb I This gane, based on two holes (sic) each of six holes with three balls per hole, was recalled with some difficulty by an old man of Massawa, Mohamed Sherif, now reisdent in ASmara, who spoke of it as waaché waledat I.e., "my cow gave birth," and says it was traditionally only played by males. The game is reminiscent of Games 9 and 11, found in western Eritrea, in that players move in an anti-clockwise direction when starting a move from the right of their row and in a clockwise direction when starting from the left. The method of capture is, however, entirely different, and resembles Game 7 in that players capture groups of four balls. Players, moving alternately, begin by picking up the contents of any of their holes, drop these balls on by one in the following holes, pick up the contents, if any, of any hole on which they drop the last ball in their hand, and stop when they do so on an empty hole. After the initial arrangement of balls has been disturbed a player dropping the last ball in his hand into one of his opponent's holes containing three balls captures all four balls, this gambit enabling him to continue his move. When a player moved a ball across the end of the board to his opponent's opposite hole the latter player was forbidden to shift the ball back in the following move, and when a player was left without counters his opponent appropriated those which remained on his row. The game would come to an end in a single round, the player with the largest number of counters being the victor." Pankhurst 1971: 171.
Confidence 100
Ages Child, Elder, Adolescent, Adult
Genders Male
Source Pankhurst, R. 1971. Gabata and Related Board Games of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia Observer 14(3):154-206.
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